As much as I hate to admit it, those long days of summer have come to an end. It's getting darker earlier and heat has vanished along with the sun's strength. Fall in all of its colorful glory will be upon us soon.
This past summer brought with it a bound of colors all their own. I had some successes and failures this season. This was my first year having success planting sweet pea vines, although they haven't bloomed just yet. I'm pretty sure I planted them later than I should have (oops!). Same goes with the zinnia seeds I planted. The first set of seedlings nearly got destroyed by some hungry bugs, so I planted more seeds in July, which means my zinnia have just started blooming recently. I really can't complain, as I've enjoyed having the variety of their colors so late in the season. I also tried dahlias again and their giant blooms filled the back of my garden. Next year, I'll remember to not plant my daisies near our 'tunnel of trees' alongside of the house and need to move the hydrangeas so that they get more sun. I'm making a note to thin out my snapdragons better so they don't grow to be so leggy. I also learned that I don't need to start seeds indoors during the spring months; the annuals seemed to do better with their seeds just being planted directly into the ground. Lastly, I lost another rose plant to Rose Rosette Disease (my second in three years).
I highly recommend making notes in a journal to keep track of when things bloomed, issues you faced, and ideas for next year.
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How's your garden looking this time of year? What lessons have you learned this growing season?
